PORTLAND, Maine — Mike Gossin of country band Gloriana stopped to think a bit after being asked if it felt like his band was getting a second chance to debut.

“It definitely feels like a continuation, but it also feels like a new variation,” said Gossin, vocalist and guitarist in the trio, which features his brother Tom Gossin (guitar, vocals) and Rachel Reinert (vocals, tambourine).

With four years of success, personal tumult and professional upheaval passing between the release of the band’s self-titled debut album, which features Billboard No. 15 single “Wild at Heart,” and its second studio compilation, Gloriana is almost a different band.

“Yes, but also no,” Mike Gossin said during a telephone interview from Florida between gigs on the band’s tour promoting its album “A Thousand Miles Left Behind.” “The fact that we started as a three-piece band in a small apartment in Nashville, that’s the core of this band and it always will be.”

That’s especially true since the departure of singer Cheyenne Kimball in 2011.

“I don’t think removing one voice really changed our sound that much,” Gossin said. “As a matter of fact, I think it opened it up a bit more and made all three voices more distinct.”

The reconstituted Gloriana will play at 9 p.m. Thursday at Portland nightclub Asylum.

Kimball — 2002 winner of NBC’s show “America’s Most Talented Kid” — left the band in the summer of 2011 in the midst of recording tracks and a music video.

“We did the first album with her and then had the second one going through,” Gossin recalled. “I think, my take is, that she was kind of worn down from the road and everything. At the end of the day, it’s just about happiness and I think she wasn’t finding it. And respectfully, I understand. She’s a good person and I do wish her the best.”

Kimball’s voice was pulled off the remaining song tracks before the album was released late last July. The change hasn’t seemed to affect the band’s success as “(Kissed You) Goodnight” peaked at No. 2 and follow-up single “Can’t Shake You” has cracked the Top 25.

“Sometimes you get numb to a lot of things on the road and working so hard. Her departure was a slap in the face, realitywise,” Gossin said. “It relit our fire and made us a bit more dedicated.

“At the end of the day, it brought us even closer together.”

That’s saying a lot, considering how this group got together in the first place.

After playing acoustic gigs anywhere they could for 10 years in their native New York, the brothers decided — at the urging of several CW TV network show “One Tree Hill” cast members, who saw the Gossins perform while shooting nearby — to move to Nashville.

“We just showed up, not with any real plans, and crashed with a buddy,” Gossin said.

In the meantime, the Gossins were scouring MySpace to promote their music and find a lead singer.

“We were looking for any unsigned, good-looking, good-sounding female singers, and we found her page,” he said. “We messaged her [Rachel Reinert] and asked if she wanted to join a band, and promised her we weren’t stalking her or anything like that.”

They also sent Reinert a link to their music. She checked it out, decided they were legit and agreed to meet.

“We just started jamming and about an hour into it, you could tell it was going to work with the blend and everyone being on the same page,” he said.

About a week or so later, Reinert suggested they both move in, use a converted bedroom in her one-bedroom apartment and help with expenses.

“We had to meet her dad, Scott, first because her mother was helping her pay the rent,” Gossin said.

For the next few months, the brothers slept in the same bed.

“We had a huge wall of pillows between us and we switched off on who was under the sheets and who was sleeping on top of the sheets each night,” Gossin said with a chuckle. “I’ll never forget the day we moved out of there. We were all high-fiving each other.

“But there was a lot of bonding through that and I think it helped, if nothing else, in the way it brought us closer together and put us all more on the same page and helped our camaraderie.

“It was all worth it in the end,” Gossin said.

Gossin said he can hear the influence of that early bonding on the new album.

“It’s the most personal and honest, and it’s the most success we’ve ever had,” Gossin said. “I’m telling you, dude, the next one will be even better. We’re just getting started.”